Key Drugs Join PPEs on List of Front-Line Shortages
First it was a critical shortage of personal protective equipment. Then pleas for more ventilators to sustain patients with COVID-19 and providers to care for them. Now, multiple sources are reporting deepening shortages of the drugs needed to help ventilate patients and keep them sedated.
Shortages are already evident for albuterol; neuromuscular blockers and sedatives, including fentanyl, midazolam, and propofol; and vasopressors for septic shock, even as orders increase exponentially.
The rates at which hospitals traditionally had been able to fill orders for ventilator-associated drugs was 95%, Dan Kistner, PharmD, told Medscape Medical News.
"These classes of drugs have dropped to 60 or 70% in the last month alone," said Kistner, senior vice president for pharmacy solutions at Vizient, a group purchasing organization that negotiates medicine contracts for about 3000 hospitals and healthcare facilities in the US. "Every day it's dropping 2 or 3 additional percent," he continued.
Demand "Unprecedented"
The demand is simply "unprecedented," he said, adding that the shortages are piling up even after elective surgeries have been put on hold.
Shortage of brand name albuterol (Ventolin) in Canada also (made by Glaxo). My B.C. pharm said none to be had no supply 2wks ago and is having to substitute generic brand (I won’t know until it gets here if it’s Canada-mfg or from India or ? but it is on it’s way). So far no problems with longer-acting Atrovent brand name supply (made by Boehringer).